Thousands of children not ready for school

[Bonsoir]

Here

hmmm don't the government want to remove EBD as a classification of SEN? Tory spin.

corny I am wracking brains - EBD ? sorry to be dense

emotional and behavioural difficulties

I am with Cory I think 4 is too early to start 'school' .

yes I also agree that 4 is too early

5318008 - still in disguise I see

Thanks for link will read that (and the thread) later

In the meantime - I'm not too worried overall about DD - 4 in 3 weeks and starting reception in September. Socially and 'academically' (if that's even something worth noting at age 4!) she keeps up with the autumn/winter born DCs at preschool, and she's good at all the dressing/feeding herself stuff that I hear are what teachers really want in their new intake. I am worried about her being physically tired though.

We don't have tv, just watch DVDs and play wii, but it is fairly limited (got quite lax though lately as we are very stressed - really need to change this) generally I'm not keen on too much screen time for little ones, prefer walks in the woods looking at bugs or playing board games and reading stories.

That said, I am pretty much glued to my iPhone and DH is buying me a kindle today - hypocrite alert

Dilys got there before me - DS (3) certainly spends more time playing and learning when he's at nursery than when he's with me, can use the toilet by himself, hold a pencil correctly etc.. I guess he's ready for school then

...and I agree with 5318008 that it's an excuse for WOHM bashing.

Well, I completely agree about the importance of developing gross and fine motor skills and the benefits 'traditional' lullabies and nursery rhymes but don't understand the connection with working parents. Most kids whose parents work go to nursery, where they do plenty of the above.

I honestly think a lot of the problem is that 4 is too young for compulsory schooling, hence most 4 year olds 'not being ready'. My 4.2 year old dd starts school in September; she can hold a pen, read and write simple words, do mental arithmetic, tell the time, ride a bike but I still wouldn't say she's 'ready' for formal schooling.

What a bizarre excuse for WOHM bashing. Children who are in decent childcare are probably more likely to be ready for school than those who hang around the house all day.

I do know some parents who take the attitude that they don't need to teach their children anything as 'that's the school's responsibility' which is a bit crap. But nothing to do with WOHPs

Nothing to do with working or not working parents - parents have stepped backwards in the way they parent. I'm forever seeing 4 is too young for school, it's been the way since I was a child - I went to school the week after my 4th birthday over 40 years ago and my children went at similar ages 20 years ago, it isn't a new concept at all. There weren't children (who had no special need) that couldn't use the toilet or hold a knife/fork/pen - if a child couldn't do these things, they were very rare

I'm also seeing so much 'he'll do it when he's ready' in regards to eating and toileting - no, you teach them how to do those things, you teach them age 2/3 how to be clean - they don't learn it in two days, it takes time. Too many parents give up with teaching basic living skills due to mess and inconvenience. Little children are sponges, you have to put in the effort for them to learn skills, they won't learn by just being held and loved

Oh and I completely agree with cory - I think we start children in full time education at far too young an age in the UK

But the full time education they do in reception and much of year 1 is like what they do in nursery school in other countries where they do start later, let's not lose sight of that!

When I compare the working mothers I know with the non-working mothers, it is definitely the latter who are more likely to stick their child in front of cbeebies or bang a nintendo in its hand.

Crumbs - DS has the choice of starting school at 4.2 or 5.2 - I have already decided that it's highly unlikely I'll be sending him at 4.2 because he just won't be ready! He's only 3.6 now, if I send him at 4.2, he'll be among the youngest in the class, he's not that big so also among the smallest and I don't want him to have that disadvantage. For him to go at 4.2 he'd have to be begging me to let him go - and I can't see that happening.

the holding a pencil thing is hard tho. DS went to nursery from the time i went back to work (7 months old) 3 days a week, went to pre-school 5 days a week before school and spent hours and hours 'colouring'. and yet he still couldn't hold a pen when he started school at 4.1. within a month of starting school, he could. it wasn't for the want of trying - we tried and tried to get him to hold it properly at home but he couldn't / wouldn't do it. yet at school he did it almost straight away. so was it coincidental that his development caught up at the time he started school, or did i fail him by being a WOHM?

The whole story has been throughly demolished here
deevybee.blogspot.com/2011/06/its-tough-being-parent-of-child-with.html

Back to the tv now ...

That is an absolutely brilliant link, Parietal :).

I thought the link was very unsubstantial. The twin example proved nothing.

The initial link was also insubstantial. It was hardly a multi-factorial analysis.

The link was to a newspaper review of a book (which I shall read with interest), not to academic research.

I am fascinated by people who claim that parents have little impact on their children's language development. You only have to live in plurilingual communities and make a few observations to know that that is totally untrue.

I entirely agree DilysPrice. My DS attends a mixture of nursery and pre-school (where he will be attendiing school in Sept). I don't think I've even seen a TV in either setting, they do have guided time on the PC but the vast majority of their time is spent outdoors playing.

The fact he gets to interact with a group of children his own age and learn how to manage socialy with the situations this presents is something that I could never replicate at home.

His home time can then focus on quiality time with myself and DH (stories/play/cooking included). The assumption that working parents cannot do these things and just rely on technology is absurd. In comparison to children of friends of ours who have a SAH parent he spends far less time in front of the TV.

Slightly off topic but I seem to be channelling Ben Goldacre here ...

Can someone clarify for me Goddard-Blythe's credentials on this? The post-nominal FRSA seems to imply 'fellow of the Royal Society of Arts' ... not exactly what I'm looking for in my neurophysiological experts (I can't seem to work out what else it might stand for ...).

I note that amongst the 'many' articles she has written, only a couple have been published in peer-reviewed journals of limited prominence. The remainder refer to newspaper articles, parenting magazines and, oddly, places in other articles where she has been cited.

All this does not fill me with confidence re: her research background, nor does the fact that she does not have a PhD or any of the usual qualifications in the cognitive neuroscience area I'd expect to see. This publication history does not marry well with the assertion that she works for a self-funding (read: profit-making) organisation "at the forefront of research and clinical practice into the effects of abnormal primitive and postural reflexes on learning and emotional functioning".

All of this, of course, doesn't mean that she isn't making a good point: I'd just question her position of authority to make it.

FNP - FRSA = Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, as you said - but I believe it is not something you can join just because you want to - like the Masons, you have to be nominated or invited to join (I think). So it's still a bit of an honorarium.

this is some background into Sally Goddard Blythe - although she doesn't have a PhD, she has an MSc and appears to have been a teacher in the field for some years, so I suppose she feels that field experience outweighs PhD need. Who knows - sometimes field experience IS more relevant; and sometimes not. But it doesn't necessarily class her with the GMcKs or SWMNBNs of this world.

I completely understand what you're saying thumbwitch, but reading down the list shows that a lot of the 'publications' are INPP monographs! By all means, she should talk and write about her doubtless relevant experience and theories. But to claim that a centre is at the "forefront of research" on a subject is vastly hard for even a prominent university to justify. I have an MSc, relevant experience in my area of focus and am about to have a PhD. I have a few publications. I'm not claiming to be at the forefront of anything though, because I'd be laughed out of the discipline.
I assumed the FRSA was based on the fact that she's written accessible, popular books of some scholarly relevance. It still doesn't substantiate the idea of neuroscientific research excellence though.